Serial car burglar to receive plea deal despite San Francisco prosecutors' objections

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- It might be a new year, but San Francisco is dealing with the same old problem: judges giving plea deals to repeat offenders, even over the objection of prosecutors.

If you follow the I-Team at all, you know the name Robert Sonza. He has a long rap sheet of breaking into cars and running from police. But in a hearing Thursday on his latest case, a San Francisco judge plans to give him a deal and release him.

On Sept. 7 of last year, an SFPD undercover team spotted someone they call "a known auto burglar," 27-year-old Robert Sonza, along with a juvenile who was breaking into cars at the Palace of Fine Arts. Police followed the suspects into Oakland where they had to use spike strips to make an arrest.

Now, in a deal arranged by Judge Bruce E. Chan, Sonza is pleading guilty to five felonies: Receiving Stolen Property, Accessory After the Fact, Possession of a Firearm by a Felon, Concealed Firearm in a Vehicle and Possession of Ammunition.

Sonza has a decade-long history of similar crimes, including car burglary, grand theft, hit and run, shoplifting and domestic violence. He's been on probation several times and reoffended. Yet, Judge Chan is giving Sonza probation again.

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San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins told the I-Team, "We were prepared to go to trial. We wanted to see accountability for a man that has continued to victimize people in San Francisco and wreak havoc on our streets."

The prosecutor offered a two-year state prison sentence during pretrial, but Sonza and his public defender turned it down. So, after Thursday's sentencing hearing and with Judge Chan's intervention, Sonza could be out of San Francisco County Jail after less than four months in custody.

"I have to say that this is a failure of the criminal justice system," Jenkins said.

To learn more about Judge Chan's reasoning, the I-Team purchased the certified transcript from Sonza's change of plea hearing. Chan said, "I'm not here to satisfy what some media account says or what some people from some other state think should happen."

He appears to be referencing the victims in past I-Team reports. On Sept. 1, 2023, Sonza broke into this couple from Indiana's rental car and took cash, an iPad and a $3500 laptop. He was on probation for that when he got arrested in the current case.

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"What do you say? Surprise, surprise, surprise?" car break-in victim Dan Oldiges told the I-Team. "I mean, you keep doing the same thing, you expect, you're gonna get the same results."

Judge Chan admitted he's now offering the plea deal over the objection of prosecutors, saying, "The easiest thing would be just to have you go to jail for two years and you are not my problem anymore. I'm going to make it my problem to see if we can do something different."

Chan said he will "monitor (Sonza) personally" to make sure he's taking advantage of the Probation Department programs for employment and counseling. And if Sonza doesn't, he faces the maximum three years, eight months in state prison.

Former SFPD Officer Riley Bandy said, "It's just crazy how this is, this is okay in San Francisco. That to me, it's mind boggling."

Bandy had a run-in with Sonza on April 27, 2022. Sonza was driving a stolen vehicle reportedly used in multiple car break-ins that day. Police had him on a dead-end street in North Beach, but he sped away, took out a garage on Alta Street, sideswiped cars, hit Bandy's patrol car--injuring his back--drove onto the sidewalk damaging more homes and took out another car--causing more injuries--before a foot-chase and arrest in Chinatown.

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Sonza faced a slew of charges, but in a plea deal with a different judge, all of them got dismissed except for a single count of Evading an Officer.

Bandy has had enough. He retired after 10 years on the force.

"The insanity of all of this, if this is how it's going to be, it's just not smart for me to be a police officer in the city I love anymore. It's madness," he said.

Bandy worries how officers will continue to do their best, when someone like Sonza gets released on plea deal after plea deal. Sonza also has an open case out of Contra Costa County for fleeing a police officer and resisting arrest, two special allegations in that case. He has prior felonies in Napa and San Francisco, and he committed 2nd degree robbery as a juvenile.